


skittles

by pockyjrs (directorscut)



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, M/M, flatmates!jren, jonghyun's very defensive over his babies (skittles), minki's a ball of energy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 08:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorscut/pseuds/pockyjrs
Summary: The Choi Minki Hypothesis: All Skittles taste the same.





	skittles

**Author's Note:**

> hypothesis: domestic jren will make you soft and warm and fuzzy.

“Minki, _don’t_. Just don’t talk to me.”

“Why are you so hung up on this? They did research, Jonghyun, research! All Skittles clearly taste the same.” Minki snorts as he catches the pillow flying from the other side of the sofa with ease.

The look of annoyance on Jonghyun’s face easily matches the red sour skittle he was eating. At his current state, Minki thinks Jonghyun looks a lot like the skittle. Red and sour. The thought was a funny one so he doesn’t bother stopping the chuckle leaving his mouth, not even when the older out of the two levels him with a glare.

“It’s not funny! They have their separate flavors, the green one-” Jonghyun pauses momentarily in search of a green skittle from the packet.

“Tastes exactly like the rest of the colors.” Minki cuts him off, eagerly getting out of his blanket burrito before running to his bedroom in their shared two-room apartment. He had a hypothesis to prove! This will show Jonghyun who’s boss.

After all, there were two college students in the house. One majoring in applied chemistry and the other, human relations. If anyone were to know more about the science behind taste buds _and_ chemistry in the house, it would definitely be Minki!

 

The human relations major.

 

“Have you accepted defeat?” Minki hears Jonghyun snicker from the living room and he doesn’t need to see the other’s face to know that he was all smug thinking Minki had surrendered. _As if._

Minki parades into the living room again to find Jonghyun conveniently snuggled up in _HIS_ blanket however, still eating the sour balls of sensory deception. Jonghyun gives Minki the same look he does whenever he figures Minki’s up to no good. He squints at the silky material in Minki’s grip and makes eye contact.

“Up for some roleplay, Birthday Princess?” Jonghyun remarks, referring to the pink sash he got Minki last November.

“Ha! You wish. I couldn’t find my tie, so I guess this’ll do,” Minki almost chokes at the comment, but shrugs it off instead and tries his _absolute_ best to act nonchalant. Apart from his best friend Dongho, nobody knows he’s been harboring a one-sided crush (a harmless teensy-weensy crush, or so he tells himself) on his flat mate ever since he moved in. At least that’s what Minki thinks.

 

-

 

_A YEAR AGO: MINKI_

 

“Minki, you’ve got enough CDs and posters to make a Gaga shrine.” Aaron huffs as he carries the last box of Minki’s belongings into the semi-inhabited apartment.

Distracted by the photo frames organized neatly on the table by the small second hand TV, Minki only laughs. He immediately notices a picture of Aaron, his family friend who had helped him find a place to stay after getting evicted from his university dorm room due to a five-month overdue rental bill. In Minki’s defence, he had used all his money up for VIP tickets to a Lady Gaga concert. In the picture, Aaron had another boy with a lopsided smile in a chokehold at what seems to be like one of their university’s football matches. _Cute_ , Minki thinks although he was vaguely unsure of what (or who) exactly it was that he found cute.

He’s broken out of his trance when he hears Aaron muttering a _Dude, you scared the shit out of me_ from behind. Turning around, Minki finds his friend fist-bumping the boy from the picture and holy cheese, he looked like he came straight out of a runway show.

“Sorry man, I always forget how easily you get scared.” Top Model laughs, running a hand through his hair before meeting Minki’s gaze with a soft smile. Top Model says something Minki can’t quite hear over the chaos that is his remaining brain cells going into overdrive before making his way around the boxes scattered around the room to approach Minki. Aaron snorts and Minki immediately snaps out of it.

“Oh sorry, earth to Minki. I’m Minki! Choi Minki-” Minki pauses to shake the other’s outstretched hand before scrunching his eyebrows.

“-uh and who might you be?” He adds as an afterthought.

At this, Aaron full on breaks into a laughing fit because _duh_. What psycho would have a picture of two strangers in their apartment? It wasn’t _Aaron’s_ so clearly, one would expect a functional human brain to put two and two together.

The boy must’ve realized Minki’s genuine confusion at one point because he shakes his head with amusement and smiles so brightly it actually gives light bulbs a run for their money.

“I’m your flatmate, Kim Jonghyun.”

 

 _Well shit_ , Minki’s last remaining brain cell deadpans.

 

-

 

Minki makes himself comfortable in the spot next to Jonghyun and snatches the packet of Skittles away from the other’s hands.

“Hey hey hey, what gives?”

“Shhh. Okay, so listen here’s the thing. I’m offering you a deal,” Minki grins. Jonghyun gives him the Look again, so Minki continues.

“I’m going to put this on you-” He says already tying the sash around Jonghyun’s head so it covers his eyes.

“-and you’re going to make me guess the colors?” Minki nods even though he knows Jonghyun couldn’t see him.

“Uh huh, and if you guess them all wrong you’ll have to do my chores _and_ yours for the rest of the month.” Ha. Take that.

Jonghyun had the audacity to look smug, but apart from telling Minki to _bring it on,_ he doesn’t make any other remarks. Minki starts his experiment by placing a yellow skittle on Jonghyun’s tongue. The sourness makes his eyebrows furrow but he doesn’t say anything.

“Easy. Yellow.” He comments. Minki's aware that possibilities are endless and Jonghyun could have gotten that right by pure chance so, he tries again with a green skittle.

“Green. Come on Minki, I know my flavors.”

And _again_ with a yellow skittle to confuse Jonghyun’s taste buds. That’ll show him.

“Hm. This is pretty tough-” He pauses. Minki’s ready to bust out his victory dance when-

“Yellow.”

“ _OH COME ON!_ You’re cheating, maybe I didn’t tie the sash hard enough,” Minki fumbles with the knot behind Jonghyun’s head hastily, unaware that he was close to sitting on Jonghyun’s lap at this point.

“Accept defeat, princess.” Jonghyun reaches behind his head to push Minki’s hands away and unties the knot, grinning madly like the light bulb he is.

Minki frowns and places the packet of lies on the coffee table behind him. “I hate you. I can’t believe you’re making me do _my_ chores all on _my_ own.”

His flatmate unwraps the fluffy fleece blanket from his own body and secures it around Minki. Jonghyun comes closer and Minki has to do a double take to realize that they were _close_ close. Like, not two bros chilling in a hot tub five feet apart cause they’re not gay. He is, clearly, he’s not sure Jonghyun knows. Minki’s friends know, but he hasn’t exactly found a reason to disclose that piece of information about him to Jonghyun, so like, _does_ he know?

“Hey, I can hear you think.” Jonghyun laughs. He was so close Minki could feel the latter’s breath tickling his eyelashes.

Jonghyun’s met with silence because Minki’s too flustered to say anything.

“You never asked me what I wanted if _I_ won,”

Minki gulps and in the quietness of the room he can faintly hear the sound of the ceiling fan whirring.

“And what is that?” Minki’s surprised at the sound of his own voice, he was pretty sure he drowned in the void that is Jonghyun’s eyes for a second.

“To kiss you.” Pause. “Can I?”

The weak _uh huh_ Minki manages to give while his brain cells go into Super Panic Mode™ must’ve sounded hesitant because Jonghyun’s face falls and his expression immediately changes into one of shame.

“Crap, Minki. It’s okay, I thought-I’m so sorr-”

The first thing he notices is how Jonghyun’s lips tasted mildly of- lemon? 

Before Jonghyun’s panic could manifest into a thousand sour skittles, Minki had quite literally smashed their lips together. _Wow Minki, romantic much?_ He thinks.

He meets Jonghyun’s eyes almost comically before he feels the quirk of Jonghyun’s lips against his and the latter’s hands by the nape of his neck. Minki shuts his eyes and relaxes into Jonghyun’s touch and this time, he doesn’t bother to stop the smile spreading on his face. Except he does, because he was ruining the kiss, but then again it was perfect so he couldn’t have possibly ruined anything.

 

Based on the tongue action, Minki immediately rejects the hypothesis he presented earlier.

Skittles _don’t_ taste the same. He’s sure of it, and based on Jonghyun’s laugh, he probably knows what Minki was thinking of too.

 

-

 

_A YEAR AGO: JONGHYUN_

 

Jonghyun bounds up the stairs of his apartment complex after deciding that the elevator would probably take a day and a half to reach the lobby. Hey, no judgements, the place had 10 floors after all. He’s lived on the fifth floor alone ever since university started a year and a half ago, but that changes today. His football team captain’s (also one of his closest friends) family friend was moving in, and to be frank he wouldn’t have been this excited if it weren’t for Aaron.

 

_“Minki’s a bit like an energy drink, you don’t know you need it until you’re done with a game, half-dead and it just sucks the life back into your body man,” Aaron had commented halfway through their stretching routine._

 

_“You talk about all your friends like a philosopher?” Jonghyun remarked, laughing._

 

_“Just Minki. He’s a breath of fresh air, you’ll see.”_

 

Jonghyun reaches the fifth floor in record time, and pauses by the elevator doors to make sure he didn’t look like someone straight out of a marathon. He _did_ , but apart from the chaos that was his hair, he looked presentable, at least.

He walks down the hallway slowly, and notices a familiar figure entering his apartment with a box full of- were those posters? He had passed the spare keys to Aaron earlier because he had four hours of lab and he wasn’t sure he’d make it back on time to meet his new flatmate.

_Right, Choi Minki. The alleged breath of fresh air._

Jonghyun shrugs, it’s now or never. Upon entering his previously empty apartment he’s greeted by boxes full of clothes, shoes and _Lady Gaga?_  Nobody seems to have noticed him yet, especially not the boy with his back towards Jonghyun. The boy laughs at an offhand comment Aaron makes and even from the soft laugh Jonghyun can tell he was about to fall, really really hard.

He places a finger on Aaron’s shoulder, making him turn around immediately out of fright.

“Dude you scared the shit out of me,” Aaron mutters with his hand clasped over his heart, ever so dramatic. He fist-bumps his friend and mumbles a sincere apology before he’s met with a very pleasant surprise.

The boy had turned around and was now looking at Jonghyun directly. Wow, he was _gorgeous_. Based on the snort Aaron gives while Jonghyun makes his way around the boxes, he’s quite certain he said that out loud like the _idiot out of an imaginary marathon_ he is.

Minki didn’t seem to notice, and he thanks all his lucky stars for that. He didn’t need to look like as a _psycho_ too, marathon guy was plenty.

He reaches a hand out and the boy immediately bursts into an apology.

“Oh sorry, earth to Minki. I’m Minki! Choi Minki-”  _Choi Minki_ pauses to shake his outstretched hand before scrunching his eyebrows.

 _Cute, cute, cute._ Jonghyun’s brain cells seemed to echo collectively.

“-uh and who might you be?” The boy adds as an afterthought.

Aaron bursts into a laughing fit from behind, but at that moment, all Jonghyun could focus on was the way Minki scrunched his eyebrows in what seemed to be like genuine confusion.

He shakes his head, he was already _so_ whipped. Jonghyun smiles. 

 

“I’m your flatmate, Kim Jonghyun.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> so, hypothesis accepted/rejected? 
> 
> if u made it here, thank u so much for reading! <3 if u scream abt jren in the comments i'll definitely join.


End file.
